U.S. Government to Build 48 Electric Vehicle Highway Corridors

It's going to get a little easier to be green.

By
David Grossman

In a step forward for the electric car road trip, the Obama Administration announced plans to create 48 national electric-vehicle (EV) charging networks on nearly 25,000 miles of highways in 35 U.S. states.

The charging stations are required under the 2015 FAST Act. Car manufacturers like Nissan, General Motors, and BMW have agreed to work with public utilities in 28 of those states to fast-track their construction. The network plan is part of the $2.4 billion Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) program that's bundled inside the FAST Act.

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As you can see on the map, there are two kinds of projects. Existing (or "signage-ready") EV stations need new highway signs to alert drivers to their existence, "similar to existing signage that alerts drivers to gas stations, food, and lodging," the Department of Transportation says. But most of the work will be on "signage-pending" stations, as the government calls them—chargers that don't exist yet. These stations will be built in states that haven't seen any such EV highway corridors yet, like Minnesota, Missouri, Idaho, Iowa, and Utah.

Of course, the Obama Administration isn't the only one building EV stations. Tesla's Supercharger stations dot the American map, with over 700 in both the United States and Canada.